Having said that, I completely understand and connect with an athletes desire to push the boundaries of what they as a person can do. Like all art, music, theatre, dance, the Olympics is all about the drive to produce the best, to express oneself fully, to astound, to inspire and to change perceptions of what is possible. It seems to me to embrace one of life's fundamentals the desire to explore.
With this in mind I was delighted to be asked to be involved in the Opening Ceremonies discussion group in Belfast. The opportunity to be involved on any level and to contribute to the creation of something truly unique, visionary and magnificent is something that doesn't come round very often. The Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Olympics are spectacles like no other.
Experienced by millions, the Opening Ceremony is a rare chance to present a piece of spectacular performance theatre that connects to all those watching live in the arena, or on the telly or on the internet all around the world.
It is a moment. A real moment. A moment that should make people stop and gasp and wonder and marvel. A moment when you say 'I cannot believe what I have just seen and heard' or 'I have never witnessed anything so magnificent before'.
Like the Games themselves it should be an occasion that stretches the definition of awesome. Like many of the cities that have gone before, the London Games has the opportunity to present 'a thing' that will be ingrained in your memory for ever more. That is the challenge and that must be the result, otherwise that aint the Olympics.
My Olympics
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